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  Rally Raid

Fabrizio Meoni 1957-2005

On Tuesday January 11, endurance rally raiding lost one of its best. Italian Fabrizio Meoni crashed on Special Stage 11, suffering a heart attack around the time of the accident.

Factory Yamaha rider David Fretigne witnessed the accident and was on the scene almost immediately to fire Meoni's emergency beacon. Helicopter paramedics arrived quickly, but could not revive the veteran rider.

This year was Meoni's thirteenth assault on the Dakar. Enticed out of retirement after Nani Roma left for Mitsubishi and the death of Richard Sainct on the Pharaohs Rally in Egypt three months ago, Meoni led the factory KTM squad this year. Meoni took his fourteenth stage victory on Special Stage 6 last week, and led the rally outright two days ago after Special Stage 9.

The 47-year-old will be best remembered for his back to back victories on the Dakar. In 2001 Meoni won after being close for several years on KTM's 660 LC4. Twelve months later in 2002 the big Italian tamed KTM's 950 LC8 twin on the road to Cairo. Meoni also had ten other major Raid victories in the last decade and won his sport's world championship in 2000. Meoni announced his retirement from competition after last year's Dakar where he had struggled on a route unsuited to the 950.

He is survived by his wife Elana and two children.

Jose Manuel Perez 1963-2005

Last Friday Jose Perez crashed during the first marathon stage, Special Stage 7. Injured in the accident, he was immediately medivaced back to the medical bivouac, and eventually back to Alicante in Spain. Surgeons were forced to remove Perez's spleen and kidney, but the 41 year old Spaniard picked up an infection and passed away on Monday.

This was Perez's fourth Dakar Rally where he was fighting back up the order after a luckless rally early on.

Mitsubishi Leads Towards Senegal

While Mitsubishi did not force the pace during the first week of the Dakar, as the second week closes defending champion Stephane Peterhansel and his teammate Luc Alphand lead the rally with their effective opposition reduced to one car, the blue and silver Volkswagen Touareg of 2001 champion Jutta Kleinschmidt.

Tonight the motorcycle contingent of the Dakar flies onwards towards Bamako, Mali with their machines in the rally's big Anotonov transports, devastated by the dual hammer blow of the deaths of Fabrizio Meoni and Jose Manuel Perez.

Injury has also taken others from the rally, with Pal Anders Ullevalseter crashing out of the rally with an injured shoulder, while the Nissan Dessoude team have been torn asunder after heavy accidents have hospitalised Gregoire de Mevius (while in an excellent fourth place), 1997 Dakar winner Kenjiro Shinozuka and Shinozuka's navigator Pascal Maimon, for the second time in their careers in cases of both drivers. Happily their injuries are not as serious as their previous experience on the Dakar, although it now seems likely to be the last Dakar for the Japanese veteran Shinozuka. Carlos Sousa then moved into de Mevius's fourth position but after hub failure he too has plummeted down the rankings as he was forced to wait seven hours for the service truck, having lost all his teammates.

One by one Mitsubishi's challengers folded, including Colin McRae who crashed out of the rally a week ago, taking the then race leader out of the event. On the same stage early rally leader Robby Gordon also rolled his car. On the first of the marathon stages, Stage 7, Nissan's Ari Vatanen and the Ford-powered buggies of Jean-Louis Schlesser and Josep Maria Servia were significantly delayed, with Schlesser abandoning the rally.

Stage 8 was a disaster for the X-Raid team with Nassar Al-Attiyah and Jose Luis Monterde crashing within five kilometres of each other. Al-Attiyah was out of the rally, but Monterde continues and has fought his way back into the top ten. Al-Attiyah had risen to fourth place after Stage 7. Bruno Saby started a littany of transmission problems in his Touraeg while already well down the order, while teammate Juha Kankkunen half-rolled his VW. Kankkunen has since been retired and Volkswagen will now see their efforts concentrated on Kleinschmidt, including using the cars of Robby Gordon and Bruno Saby as service vehicles.

Mitsubishi was not without its own problems however. Andrea Mayer in the L200 Strakar is out of the rally. Also in dire trouble is Nani Roma who looks as though he may not start Stage 12 despite holding down fifth position.

Even Peterhansel himself was was not untouched, with a piston failure within fifty kilometres of the Control Point prior to the Atar rest day. An engine changed and 'Peter' was back at the head of the rally. Behind Alphand, Jutta Kleinschmidt remains the last pretender to the Mitsubishi crown, and is 68 minutes from the lead. Giniel de Villiers is next in the last of the factory Nissans, some four hours behind Peterhansel. The next car is another four hours distant.

Behind Roma is Bruno Saby, struggling onwards with Sousa next ahead of the first buggy, the Honda powered Thierry Magnaldi. Jun Mitsuhashi (Nissan) and Monterde complete the top ten.

On the bikes, Meoni's teammate Cyril Despres leads the rally by almost 15 minutes now over Repsol KTM rider Marc Coma and is 22 minutes ahead of Coma's teammate Isidre Esteve Pujol. Alfie Cox on the factory KTM sits fourth, two minutes from Pujol, while David Fretigne has climbed into fifth on the Yamaha, although like Cox, lost time attending the fallen Meoni. The Australian Andy Caldecott is the only other bike within an hour of Despres. Just one quad bike survives at this stage of the rally.

In the trucks, Vladimir Tchaguine's title defence ended on Stage 7 when he was one of many competitors to run out of fuel short of Tichit. It took some vehicles over two days to find their way out of the marathon stage.

Teammate Firdaus Kabirov now leads in the last surviving Kamaz truck. Kabirov can feel even more confortable than Peterhansel, holding a two hour lead over Hans Bekx's DAF. While five hours from the lead seems out of contention, 64-year-old Hino Ranger pilot Yoshimasa Sugawara sits in third place, with his teammate and son Teruhito in fifth, almost seven hours from Kabirov. The challenges from Tatra and Iveco have long since been extinguished, with the de Rooy DAF team seven and eleven hours behind. Dakar veteran Giacomo Vismara has climbed his Unimog into fourth place, such is the level of attrition.

The rally still has five stages to run before it reaches Dakar, Senegal, so no-one is really comfortable. Anything can still happen.

Barcelona-Dakar Rally, After Stage 11 of 16, Kiffa, Mauritania:

Cars

Pos  Driver                                   Car
 1.  Stephane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret   Mitsubishi Pajero Evo III
 2.  Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard                Mitsubishi Pajero Evo III
 3.  Jutta Kleinschmidt/Fabrizia Pons         Volkswagen Touareg
 4.  Giniel de Villiers/Jean-Marie Lurquin    Nissan Pickup
 5.  Nani Roma/Henri Magne                    Mitsubishi Pajero Evo III
 6.  Bruno Saby/Michel Perin                  Volkswagen Touareg
 7.  Carlos Sousa/Thierry Delli-Zotti         Nissan Pickup
 8.  Thierry Magnaldi/Jean-Paul Forthomme     Fast & Speed Honda Evo 3
 9.  Jun Mitsuhashi/Sylvain Poncet            Nissan Terrano
10.  Jose Luis Monterde/Rafael Tornabell      BMW X5

Motorcycles

Pos  Driver                Bike
 1.  Cyril Despres         KTM 660 Rallye
 2.  Marc Coma             KTM 660 Rallye
 3.  Isidre Esteve Pujol   KTM 660R
 4.  Alfie Cox             KTM 660 Rallye
 5.  David Fretigne        Yamaha 450WR 2WD

Trucks

Pos  Driver/Co-drivers                       Truck
 1.  Firdaus Kabirov/A.Belyaev/A.Mokeev      Kamaz 4911
 2.  Hans Bekx/E.Willems/T.Maessen           DAF FAV75
 3.  Yoshimasa Sugawara/K.Hamura             Hino Ranger FT
 4.  Giacomo Vismara/C.Bellina/M.Cambiaghi   Mercedes Unimog
 5.  Teruhito Sugawara/S.Suzuki              Hino Ranger FT

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